Having spent almost a year building nothing in Lego - including "missing" my own Lego Show in April - I decided to (over-)commit to five shows/events between now and next April. So it was time to resurrect my Castle Town from the sorting boxes.

With many shows to attend, my usual trick of destroying the castle at the end of a show was not really an option, so carefully planning was needed. I also needed a solution that was self-contained (as I can't rely on others being at all the shows), transportable, and viable in several sizes. The idea is also, over time, to rebuild sections as improvements suggest themselves.

I have a number of train baseboards, and the maximum I can comfortably fit in the car is three, so this determined the size of the biggest possible plan (240 x 160 studs). One board would be too small, so the same modules would also have to make a smaller castle on two boards (160 x 160 studs).

I now have the modules to make the town complete to a point that I can display it in either configuration

This is great, indeed very realistic looking like mentioned above. I'm always a big fan of module systems, I just think they're nifty by default, when executed well, which is certainly the case here Also I like how neat your underground "works" to support the green plates look, I always tend to slack with those because you don't get to see them really so I usually use all the parts that I know I won't need for the rest of the castle (like technic beams, fabuland walls, stuff like that Nice detail and I like the atmosphere of the marketplace when set-up, looks like a lively place.

Between plotting to kill you all and chasing balls of yarn, I also build MOCs

Aliencat wrote:Also I like how neat your underground "works" to support the green plates look, I always tend to slack with those because you don't get to see them really so I usually use all the parts that I know I won't need for the rest of the castle (like technic beams, fabuland walls, stuff like that

The first raised castle I built used stacks of 2x4 bricks in 4x4 pillars six bricks high supporting 32x32 and/or 32x16 baseplates. This works well if you're not transporting the castle for more than one show as the bottom baseplate flexes alarmingly. The system I currently use has 2x4 bricks around the edges (arranged in the lattice pattern seen in the pictures) while internal support is provided by 2x6, 2x8 and 2x10 bricks (on pillars of 2x4 bricks) as necessary, supporting 4x12 bricks or overlapped plates (to get slopes). I find this gives the rigidity required, and is both "cheap" on bricks and light-weight